The Constitution of India
The Indian Constitution is world's longest with 140,000 words spread in 395 (by some other method 470) articles in 22 (25 by some other method) parts and 8 (12 by other method) schedules. It has been ammended 104 times.
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Called Bhāratīya Saṃvidhāna, the Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India on 26 November 1949 but came into effect on 26 January 1950. This document replaced and subsumed earlier frameworks such as the Government of India Act 1935 and Indian Independence Act 1947. It borrowed heavily from several previous legislation enacted by the British as well as from the Constitution of several countries. It is world's longest with 140,000 words spread in 395 (by some other method 470) articles in 22 (25 by some other method) parts and 8 (12 by other method) schedules. It has been ammended 104 times.
With the lapse of the paramountcy of the British Empire on India on August 15, 1947, the power was returned to the rulers various countries that made up India. Between 1947 to 1950, each such princely state was convinced by Sardar Patel and his assistant V.P. Menon to sign the Instrument of Accession. The rulers were advised by the British to choose either India or Pakistan based on their religion. However, national leaders, advised the rulers to choose the country to join based on the wishes and interests of their subjects. Most of the princely states chose India.
Shri Sardar Patel, the "Ironman" of India
Shri V.P. Menon, assistant to Patel. An unsung hero
The Constitution itself was drafted by a seven-member Drafting Committee led by Shri Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. One member of the Drafting Committee Shri T.T. Krishnamachari observed that because of various reasons, the members were not able to meet as often as possible and "the burden of drafting this constitution fell on Dr. Ambedkar." Graciously, Dr. Ambedkar said that the credit "does not really belong" to him alone and it "belongs partly to Sir B.N. Rau the Constitutional Advisor to the Constituent Assembly who prepared a rough draft of the Constitution for the consideration of Drafting Committee."
Meeting over 11 sessions over 165 days, the Constituent Assembly rejected 2,473 of the 7,635 ammendmentsin it. The final meeting of the Constituent Assembly was on January 24, 1950. On adoption on January 26, 1950, it was signed by 284 members. The original Constitution was hand-written in English and Hindi and each Constituent Assembly member signed both copies. The original copies are preserved in a helium-filled case at the Parliament House in New Delhi. Thereafter, it then took 5 years for the original Constitution to be printed by the Survey of India. Since then, over 100 ammendments were made to the Constitution including the controversial insertion of the words "secular" and "socialist" in the Preamble during the Emergency of 1976 when all Constitutional rights of the citizens were suspended.
Other than some British legal concept already existent in the country, the Constitution also drew inspiration from those of many countries:
- Parliamentary form of governance, citizenship, rule of law, the leader of the house called a Speaker, and legislative procedure came from the United Kingdom
- Bill of Rights, Federal structure of governance, Electoral College system in the upper house, independence of the judiciary, judicial review process of legislation, President as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and equal protection under law came from the United States
- Directive principles of state policy concepts came from Ireland
- Freedom of inter-state trade, national legislative power to implement treaties, joint decision making on complex issues called the Concurrent List, terms used in the Preamble came from Australia
- Values of liberté (liberty), égalité (equality), fraternité (fraternity) came from France
- The federal system of a strong Federal Government augumented by strong state governments, distribution of powers between the Federal and State governments, all remaining powers with the Federal Government from Canada
- Fundamental Duties of the citizen and a planning commission to chalk out economic development from the erstwhile Soviet Union
- Emergency rights of the government from the Weimar Republic (precursor of modern Germany that existed from 1919-1933)
- The right to ammend the constitution from South Africa
- Due process of law from Japan
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The Indian Constitution is world's longest with 140,000 words spread in 395 (by some other method 470) articles in 22 (25 by some other method) parts and 8 (12 by other method) schedules. It has been ammended 104 times.